This document contains a collection of short passages on various topics related to sales and customer focused selling. The passages provide tips, reminders and perspectives for sales professionals, such as focusing on understanding customer needs rather than just selling products, asking questions to learn about customers, and adapting presentations based on individual customers' interests and priorities. The document encourages taking a customer-centric approach to maximize sales effectiveness and build strong customer relationships.

1. Welcome to Thoughts to sell by. This is a venue to share
thoughts, ideas and successes on selling with sales
professionals. Each slide presents a short message that
can function as a weekly reminder, motivator, or a
“thought for the day.”
Please contact me with any questions, thoughts or ideas.
Ed Woytowicz
woytowie@aol.com

2. Focus on the Customer
There is one technique that you can incorporate in
your sales calls to maximize the quality of
presentations. This is to shift your thinking from a
seller mentality to a buyer focus. The buyer focus
allows you to understand the customer’s needs instead
of only thinking in a persuading fashion. Once this
shift in thinking has occurred the sales person can
concentrate on the product knowledge that is relevant
to the customers need, and be more likely to ask
questions concerning the customer’s issues.

3. Vision
“What are you doing?” A passerby asked of three workers
standing beside a building under construction.
The first worker, looking tired and drained, replied, “I’m just
cutting stone.” The second one answered, “Working to make a
living.” The third worker, who was singing, said, “I’m building
a cathedral!”
Are you just cutting stone at work? Is that why you’re often
drained of energy and lacking of enthusiasm? Are you just
trying to make a living? Is that why you find no excitement in
what you do? Or are you building or doing something great?
Ask yourself: What great thing do I want to do today? Don’t
waste your life just cutting stone. Start building cathedrals.

4. Questioning
The natural inclination for a sales person is to talk. This
is dangerous. The outcome of the call is in large part
determined by your ability to get the customer to see
your product in a favorable light. This means that you
must discover and point out a relationship between the
buyer’s needs and the sales points of your product. This,
in turn, calls for skillful questioning to learn enough
about the buyer’s knowledge and attitudes to establish
this relationship.
After asking a question you can acquire this information
only by listening, not by talking.

5. Earn the Right to Advance
If you are to achieve your sales goals, you must be
sufficiently mature and self-controlled to put the buyer’s
interest ahead of your own. To achieve your own
objectives, you must satisfy the buyer’s needs first. If
you attempt to satisfy your own needs first – to make a
sale – you will fail.

6. Focus on the Customer
Gone is the idea of selling the customer on your product.
Don’t focus on your great products, or impeccable
service, but instead focus on your customer’s needs.
Time in front of customers is precious, and when the
situation presents, reps often can’t wait to deliver their
core message, get selling, and close the deal. But…if
you want to sell most effectively, build trust and
credibility, and increase customer access; you have to
wait to start selling your product. First, shine the
spotlight on the customer!

7. Focus on the Customer
If you are doing all the talking, focusing entirely on your
needs, and not engaging your customers in a dialogue,
they are likely to ignore what you have to say. Put
yourself in your customer’s shoes; that’s what customer
focused selling is all about. Wouldn’t you rather deal
with a salesperson that explores solutions to your
challenges than one who only focuses on their products?

8. Change
Have you ever noticed how the beach never looks the
same twice, that storms constantly move the sand around?
How is the beach a metaphor for the change that we are
facing on the job and in the industry? We are constantly
challenged to re-think the way we approach and do
business with our customers – but that involves change,
and many of us are resistant to change. Customer
Focused Selling can be frightening; everything will look
different for a while. But eventually the relationship will
came back, bringing more time and respect then ever
before. Oh, and by the way, you’ll also sell your product.

9. Closing
After moving through the initial steps of a solid selling presentation, the
only step left is to ASK for the business. This last step, when done well,
is the natural outcome of the entire selling process. By using Customer
Focused Selling you’ve earned the right to ask for action. This should
be the most satisfying part of a sales call, and it will help you attain
your individual sales goals. Top sales people ask for the business to
achieve their goals in:
•Retaining and Expanding Accounts
•Acquiring New Ones
•Increasing Sales
Many customers don’t like a hard manipulative close. If closing may
push the customer away, or seem insensitive, conclude the call in a way
that leaves the door open for your next call. While you conclude the
current sales call, you are beginning your pre-call planning for your
next sales call.

10. A Business Plan is a tool that you create by organizing your business
planning data and ideas into written form.
At first, it may seem that taking the time to develop a good business plan
is not really that urgent. In times when business savvy is crucial to
understanding and operating in the changing economic environment,
effective business planning may distinguish successful representatives
from all the rest.
•The first part of a plan is the Executive Summary. It will cover the
basics, and the primary function is to capture interest. Since it is the first
part that people see, it must be well organized and written. Write it last,
you’ll be sure to capture all the important points.
•Nextis an analysis of the current situation. It is an evaluation of the
current marketplace status relative to your company, customers, and
competition.
•Finally,
there is a planning portion. Include all the “How to’s” of
meeting your objectives.
Remember, a well developed Business Plan provides a forum to
demonstrate your business acumen that can help with being an effective
salesperson and may impact your chances for career advancement.

11. Sales Issues
At exactly the time when amateurs jump in and provide
solutions, experts are still…
–Clarifying and checking assumptions, by
–Seeking to understand, and…
–Asking additional qualifying questions, aimed at…
–Learning more about the impact of the issue, and…
–Learning what solving the issue will mean for the customer, to…
–Lead the customer to define advantages and benefits, in their
own words, that may be directly applicable to the products.
Because, when the customer begins to discuss the
benefits, he/she is selling to themselves. Customers are
always more persuaded by their own words than yours.

12. Connecting
When interacting with customers, be open and suspend
judgment. Keep DIALOGUE and decision-making
separate – DIALOGUE precedes decision-making,
detailing, or action.
•Speak sincerely and treat your customer as a peer.
•Listen with empathy - acknowledging you have heard others
and that you care.
•Look for common ground – identifying areas where you agree.
•Search for and disclose hidden assumptions – especially in
yourself.
Meaningful DIALOGUE will effect the relationship you
have with your customers, and result in progressive
results.

13. Focus on the Customer
Do most representatives spend as much time learning the
critical success factors of each customer they call on as
they do the hobbies and pastimes of key contacts? Not all
customers will value the same thing; there is no “one size
fits all” approach. Some interactions work well with a
personal touch, others demand a more business-to-
business approach.
Passion, knowledge and confidence are necessary to
portray value in any presentation. Confidence is the by-
product of having a working knowledge of key customer
issues so that you can credibly discuss them and use them
effectively, in order to give context to the discussion.
Remember, one of the driving principles of Customer
Focused Selling is to Focus on the Customer.

14. Focus on the Customer
A good customer relationship begins with listening and
asking good questions. Questions that reveal what your
customer needs and values. You can only provide your
customer with a valuable solution if you know what they
want. As much as this seems to be common sense,
Common Sense isn’t always Common Practice
Often, the entire customer interaction is focused on
pushing the product. As you try to single-mindedly
compel your customers towards your product, what value
do you bring to your customer? Remember, value is
defined by the customer – not the product, Find Out
What The Customers Value.

15. Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man.
But they don’t bite everybody.
Stanislaw Lec
Please contact me with any questions, thoughts or ideas.
Ed Woytowicz
woytowie@aol.com